Lullaby
by AnnTaylor87
Summary: Lord Voldemort won. No one's safe. One of the previous heros felt it already, but he hoped he would be te only of his loved ones. He was wrong. And the end is coming. - My old short story form the times I loved to write brutal tragedies.
1. Chapter 1

**I wrote this story some… eight years ago on the turn between high school and the Uni. Gosh, that's long! But I still think it's good and time didn't hurt it. It's AU where Voldemort had won and Deat Eaters are on their killing spree. And because they are targeting muggles, muggle-born and „half-breeds", and especially any resistance, he doesn't mind. Which means it will be kind of sad nazi gothic over the top horror that I can imagine happening despite it's… bit cartoonish evil. And it's short and very narrow in the sense of characters and setting, but I will publish the chapters as I did in Czech eight years ago. I really think it's worth the translation effort.**

* * *

So many days. So many days in the darkness of this pent room where fear was the reveille and despair the lullaby. Without hope for light. Without hope for help. Without hope for life.  
The only solace for a long time of imprisoning and torture was the thought of his wife and son. Those he loved more than anything in the world and who were perhaps safe. He knew from the beginning he'd lead them at the margins of society, that people would persecute and hate them, but she, his beloved lady, had always had an answer for arguments like that. Her love she didn't want to forsake.  
He had no idea how long had he been there. A month, two, half a year, days were blending into one long, frenzied agony that would something end soon. He hoped.

He was hungry and thirsty. His prisoners didn't care enough to give him food regularly, but he wasn't worthless enough to be killed.  
Faint beams of light were reaching the gloomy, almost empty cell through a little, barred window. The sun or moon, he couldn't tell clearly now. Neither was as bright as he remembered. He hoped it would end already. He stopped to care about life because he knew it was forfeit.

He wasn't well. He felt worse and worse for several days in a row. It was recurring periodically. Every month before the full moon. His lupine instincts couldn't be discharged enough, therefore he felt that if they didn't kill him, he'd harm himself soon. With every transformation more and more. He didn't ask for mercy, he just dreaded what could happen. The werewolf curse is too dangerous and unexplored to be able to tell the consequences of the madness and fight of wolf and human parts, while the human one fades and breaks. At least, he couldn't harm anyone else. Until now.

Something sounded behind the robust door of his cell. Someone was there and spoke to him. He hadn't heard a human voice for a long time, he should be glad, but this voice wasn't pleasant nor known. Only distant, mocking and the joy of his suffering beamed of it.  
"Hungry, freak?"  
So nothing special. They were going to throw him a few pieces of food after a while. He stepped back from the door. If he was too close, a curse would strike and he didn't need it in such state.  
But instead of a filthy bowl, someone's body fell down on the floor.  
"It's gonna be the full moon soon," the unknown person grinned and the lock clicked back on its impenetrable place.

Remus stayed in place until the last sounds that could reach him faded. Then he carefully approached the body. He had no idea who it was. The sun or the moon, if it was a night, hid behind a cloud and he didn't see well even his own hands that seized the body.  
Slowly and carefully, he turned it. He took a breath.  
It was familiar. He recognized the smell. He used to recognize it every time when he just got closer. It embedded into his mind as indelibly as everything related to it.  
Instantly, he refused to believe. He refused to believe it could happen. They couldn't find her!

The detained person moaned faintly but didn't wake up. There wasn't any doubt who it was. After Harry Potter failed, the war was lost, the Order of the Phoenix and every other resistance was routed and it's members pursued, arrested and murdered, most wizards lost their hope.  
He didn't. He still had faith. Even after his seizing and imprisoning. He still believed his wife and son would make it, survive in safety and would be well because it couldn't remain forever. He didn't succumb only because of this chance.  
Now he should lose it?

"Dora..."  
This couldn't... his life was gone, but why hers as well! He thought he had handled the security of his family before they caught him. That he had helped them enough. But now he saw he hadn't. And now he couldn't, he couldn't help her here.  
He sat beside her, held her hand and waited for her to wake up. The only thing he could.  
How did they get her? Did they find their hideout? Did they do something to Teddy? Where was he? Was he even alive? And what about their other friends?

Suddenly, a lot of questions started to burn him. But he realized the answers, even if he would get some, were to no good. What was the knowledge of what's going on for? Or how were other people, if he couldn't intervene. He wouldn't see the outside world till death. Neither of them. The Death Eaters would happily make sure of that. Everything started to fall apart. His dreams were burnt, promises stamped out, life written off. Everything he wanted and desired was gone and he had nothing to look up and hope for. Lord Voldemort was exactly about this. Establish desperation and fear. And no one could resist.

Evil perhaps can't be defeated. As Dumbledore said, we can just postpone the time when we have to deal with it again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Perhaps a little recap of what happened when Voldemort won and how some of other people ended. Of course, it's horrible. But life sometimes is horrible. World can be horrible. And when evil wins, there's no time for nice things.**

* * *

Dora still wasn't waking up. Remus stood under a small barred window and looked out. On the slim piece of sky that was indulged to him. It seemed evening was coming, but he couldn't be sure. He looked out and remembered the times a few years ago. The short, happy meantime when the Dark Lord was defeated.

He sensed a movement behind him and turned around.  
Dora slowly raised her head. When she realized she wouldn't see anything anyway because she was somewhere in the dark, she sat. She noticed another person standing before her.  
Neither of them spoke. She didn't recognize him and his words stayed stuck in his throat. The despair he felt when they dragged her here increased hundred times.  
She was afraid and felt the same fear in the unknown.  
Clouds lazily floated away at their endless journey at that moment and let some beams of light fall between cold stone walls of the cell.

"Remus?" she finally recognized her fellow prisoner. Even though he changed so much. He was gaunt, pale with circles under his eyes and glazed look. She yearned to see him the whole time he was gone. To be able to talk to him again, hug him, but now she couldn't do more than sadly cry.  
He knelt to her quickly and hugged her.  
"I'm sorry. So, so sorry..." he whispered into her hair.  
"No... it's my fault..." she sobbed.  
"I hoped they never get you."  
"And I hoped I will see you at least one more time..."  
"Like this? I would it rather never happen."  
Quiet sigh and only the beating of two forlorn hearts sounded for several minutes. Hearts whose days neared the end.

"How... how did they find you?" Remus broke the silence with a question biting him the most in the end.  
"My fault... just for my stupidity... I wasn't careful enough and I tried to get one muggle-born witch out of trouble. I know you forbade me, but I couldn't only sit and do nothing. I tried with one group to find threatened wizards and get them out of Britain. Behind the ocean at best. We saved lives of some of them."  
"But you ended up here because of it!"  
"Because I wasn't careful enough, I'm so sorry... because Teddy..." tears again started to roll from her eyes.  
"How is he? Is he all right?"  
She nodded. "He is fine. At the same secure place," she didn't want to say aloud where, she didn't know whether the Deat Eaters could hear her and she would hate to prepare their son the same fate as befell her and Remus. "He asked after you. If only you could hear him, how good he is in learning to talk..."  
"No, no, Dora, don't wish it. I wished you to be safe but at the same time wanted to see you and... you are here. Don't wish the same happening to him."  
"I know. But I also know I won't see him again either and... it hurts so much!" she shouted and hit Remus' shoulder, half in anger and half in despair.  
"You got to be strong..." he said somewhat paradoxically. Here, in this dreadful place, everyone broke in the end and it was pointless to try to resist. He wanted to comfort her, but there was no way. There was nothing awaiting them and everything behind them kept disappearing into the outside world, behind the firm walls that not a single positive sparkle could cross. Only dull surrender to inevitable fate resonated through everything.

"What about some of ours? Do you know something about them?" he asked slowly. He suspected he wouldn't hear anything good, but he couldn't help himself eventually. Now, when he could ask. Despite the pointlessness of such information. Long months cut off from the world without any news about the fates of his friends... he wanted to hear just anything.  
"I don't... don't know much. I was with Teddy most of time, I tried to make up for him that you were not with us. But once I got out, I heard some pieces. Neville Longbottom... Bellatrix gladly took care of him. He followed his parents. It was terrible."  
"Poor boy..."  
"Yeah. And Horace Slughorn. They found him and wanted him on their side again. He stubbornly opposed. I even don't know whether did they find his body," she was bitterly shaking her head as to banish and deny all these things.  
"Almost all teachers of old left Hogwarts. According to Minerva, the school became something appaling, but parents have no choice, they have to let them force black magic upon their children..."  
"That's enough, I don't want to hear more, to be sure. The world became a ruin."  
"We too, Remus. This is the end."


	3. Chapter 3

**All righ, we are in the half and our characters realized their situation in the full picture. It's highly unpleasant for them, but what will they do? Or, what can they do?**

* * *

They spent a long time in silence. Neither of them had any idea what to say in such situation. Was it too painful to realize it's truly the final stop and deny it? Impossible. There was no way to rescue, so they didn't attempt to find how to get out. They simply couldn't.  
Dora was lying on the ground. Maybe she managed to fall asleep, maybe she just pretended. And maybe she herself didn't know whether she's awake or asleep because the fear and darkness were constantly all around.  
Remus was standing beneath the window, looking out. The darkness was growing, the sun probably set and the late evening or the night came. It wasn't important here. Nothing could get him out of his dreary mind. If he could at least see the stars and moon... moon... He felt a pang and like dizzy.  
Something inside him started to wake up.

He leaned against the wall and breathed heavily for a while. He closed his eyes. Red spurts darted in front of him. He registered a motion behind him and vigorously turned around.

"Remus, are you... are you ill?" Dora was still a little bit dazed by her memories or dreams in which had she been until now.  
He snarled quietly and slipped on the ground along the wall.  
"Re... Remus... what's going on?" she carefully approached him. He jerked his head and glanced into her eyes.  
"No, Merlin, no!" she yelped and retreated. She only just now remembered everything. Now she knew why did they put her here. She knew what was it all about.  
"The full moon... there's gonna be the full moon soon..."

Remus slowly collected himself. It took him a while to realize the full context of her words.  
"No..." he breathed out. This hadn't ever occurred to him from the moment he could see her again.  
"Yes... They locked me here to... it's gonna be the full moon and you... how long they left you to starve?" she kept inadvertently retreating inch by inch. She loved him. But there should come the time for him to change into a monster. There should come the time for him... to kill her.  
"I don't know... but this... when the full moon comes... without the potion... I don't want to hurt you..." he said faintly.  
She stopped and made a careful step back to him. She noticed it's him again. But for how long.

"We have a little time yet. Perhaps... perhaps it can be handled somehow, if we try to overcome it, anyhow, so..."  
"How! How! You know well enough the curse can't be stopped without the potion! If you are here even during the full moon, I can't do anything, it won't be me! It will be something that wants to tear you apart and I won't be able to stop it!"  
"Remus, we have to at least try everything we can. You can't give in, come on, my darling, trust me!" tears were rolling down her cheeks. She didn't believe at all it's possible to overpower the werewolf and make him not to savage everything alive around while he's hungry. And Death Eaters just threw here there like a piece of meat.  
"I am a freak. And you can't change that. I've never wanted to hurt or endanger you, but now... I will have to..."  
"Don't say that... please," she wanted to take his hand, but he wrenched away and stood to the window again. He accusingly stared at the sky. Why he! Why she! He should never agree with the marriage. He should never go along with their relationship. It wouldn't have happened. How could he now accept the fact that the night was about to come when he would kill his wife? If he had anything to wipe himself out of the world with, he would do it! At once!

Dora silently sat on her cloak in the farther corner and wept. She awaited anything. Torture, starving in a dark cell, killing curse. But not this. The viciousness of the Death Eaters and the Dark Lord knew no bounds, but this wasn't mere viciousness anymore. She didn't find a proper word for their behaviour. She also didn't dare to speak to Remus. What should she say anyway? Persuade him it wouldn't be so horrible? That he'd be suddenly able to hold himself back, even though he didn't for all the long years? That he could defeat the terrible curse overnight?

Not yet today. It wouldn't be the full moon today, they knew because it had to be night already and Remus still kept up without greater issues. He would know the upcoming moment of transformation and it wouldn't be today. But what about tomorrow? Or the day after? What could possibly "soon" mean? What if it was the last night of breathing the heavy, stale air thick with the smell of fear and damnation?

"I'm sorry," he finally turned away from the window. It was more a barred hole in the stone wall. "I didn't want to snap at you."  
She looked up. His face was drawn, at least according to what could she see. He apparently decided to forget what's awaiting them for a while and not make their possibly last moments in this world even more uncomfortable.  
"That's all right... I know you. I know who you are. I know what it means to you to suffer before every full moon."  
"But this one won't be... it will... I've always wanted the best for you and not to drag you to hell!"  
"Remus, stop apologizing. It's not your doing. You didn't cause it. You didn't do anything wrong. This is not your fault," she said emphatically and wanted to stand up. But she felt some object in her cloak. She paused. She didn't remember to carry anything.

She carefully pulled her cloak and looked. A silver dagger shone into the dark.


	4. Chapter 4

**I know it's pretty long time after the last chapter, but I tried to find a new apartment (I maybe have, maybe…), have a lot of work (as we say, the worst enemy of the attorney is often his client) and a lot of laziness. But here it is.**

* * *

"What... what is it?" Remus asked. Dora picked up the dagger and looked him in the eyes. Her eyes oddly gleamed in the shimmer of silver.  
"A dagger. But why... why would they give it to me?"  
Remus couldn't look away from the cold metal. He started to fully understand the strategy of Death Eaters. It wasn't about him tearing Dora apart after his transformation and losing his mind. They simply let them murder each other.  
"To kill me," he sighed. Just so. And it was for the best.  
"No... no!" she dropped the dagger. The metal rang against the stone. It was made of pure silver. The only effective weapon against werewolves.  
"Dora, this is your only chance!"  
"Only chance? Only chance to prolong my torture! I can't kill you! I'm not able to do it, Remus! I love you, nobody can ask it from me!" she was desperate already. What kind of hope is it to avoid the bloody fate but kill him and remain at mercy?  
"I want it. Because you love me. And because I love you. Stab me till we have time. We don't know whether the full moon comes tomorrow or next week!"

She couldn't imagine how the werewolf feeding looked like. What pleasure is to him to tear the meat of his prey. How wonderfully exciting feeling is to feel it's fear and how amusing is to play with it. It's sport for a werewolf to chase for prey to the brink of its strength. But here he was locked between the four walls in a small space. He'd be furious after the transformation. Brutal. A hungry animal, hungry for blood.

"I can't. If I stab someone, it will be only myself!"  
But he couldn't imagine how would she feel if she took the dagger and plunged it into his heart. It wouldn't be her. She couldn't! Couldn't, the end!

"No! You can't Dora, don't you understand?" he started to panic. Why couldn't she grasp some things! "If you don't kill me, the night will come when one werewolf will eat you! Dead or alive! Do I have to wait calmly for that moment to happen? DO I HAVE FOR THE MOMENT I START TO FEED?!"  
"We still have time..." she gently stroked his cheek.  
"But how much..."  
"Promise me we will ignore it until there's no choice," she kicked the dagger aside. It hurtfully rang against the wall.  
Remus quietly nodded.  
But none of them resisted the stealthy looks until there was a day again and Remus felt better. Although only a little.

All other days were incredibly monotonous. If it were days and not mere hours. Every time one of them fell asleep, the other drowned in thoughts and played with the dagger which could end their misery. But they didn't gather enough courage to help it to do its goal.  
Remus mostly wanted Dora to sleep. Even though he didn't know why. To sleep through this whole terrible time?  
She mostly wasn't able anyway. She just pretended to not trouble him.  
They didn't talk. They had nothing to talk about.  
They spent all the time in silence and hug.  
Every evening, if it were evenings, meant dread.  
Remus was getting worse again.

Another evening. Probably few days after Dora's imprisonment.  
There was already dark outside and the clouds revealed some stars. They could see it's evening. But the moon wasn't visible from their point of view.  
Remus stood for a while, leaning against the cold stone in the wall. Dora was sleeping.  
The moon cycle was reaching its peak. He felt it and couldn't stand up to it. He couldn't do anything. Only curl helplessly into the opposite corner from his wife.  
He felt sick. He started to smell a lot of unpleasant and irritant scents around him. One beautiful, too. Very alluring and tasty.  
She woke up and looked around. She saw only a little, it was probably night. How long did she sleep?  
She looked for the Remus' silhouette, alarmed. Nothing more was visible. But she clearly recognized him cowering on the ground after few seconds.  
"R... Remus?" she spoke carefully.  
Already? Was the full moon today?

She turned his head toward her.  
So far, it was still him.  
Dora reached after the dagger.  
"No! I won't take it anymore!" she grabbed it and pointed to herself. If he's about to change, she wouldn't be the witness. And if not, she couldn't suffer another night and day!  
She swung and Remus stroke.

He brought her to the ground and knocked the dagger off her hand.  
"You must not!" he roared. "Kill me! Kill me till you can!"  
She was shaking her head and tears were rolling down her cheeks.  
"I get it would be the least painful solution, but... I can't..." she sobbed.  
"Dora... my love... it's time... every moment now I may..."  
It didn't have to be today, but if not today, tomorrow. Or the day after for sure. The moon was getting further and further in its journey and it only meant one thing to him.  
"So be it," she broke out of his grip, run her fingers through his hair and kissed him.  
"Try to withstand it, Remus. I know it hurts. And it's nasty. But try. For me."  
"I'm trying to survive for more than three days now. Or a week. I don't know. But I can't avoid the curse. It's going to happen."  
"Maybe not today yet. Try it. I won't leave you till the last moment, do you understand? And I definitely don't allow you to use the dagger. You can't die in front of me, get it?"  
He nodded. They both sat down, locked their fingers and waited, whether they survive the night. Nothing else was left.

Dora felt Remus twitching. She begged some higher power to give them one more night, at least this night and the next day. She knew they were not entitled to more.


	5. Chapter 5

**Another chapter here.**

* * *

"Mama... mama..." a weepy child's voice was heard from a cradle.  
"Mamaaa! Mamaaa!" it became wail in the next moment. Child's cry pleading for soothing. She ran to the cradle, but it was empty.  
"MAMAAA!" the crying was unbearable. She felt despair. She wanted to help the child, but she couldn't find him. She searched the whole house like some mad woman, but nothing.  
And again.  
Sobs and crying.  
She jerked.

"What is it?"  
She realized where she was. They survived another night and she fell asleep leaning on Remus due to her anxiety.  
"I dreamed about Teddy..." she sighed. "He was crying. And I couldn't help him."  
"Hush, he surely is all right. He's in good hands," he tried to calm her.  
"I miss him so much!"  
"Me too, love. But we won't help him anymore."  
They would never see him, never caress him, never hear to call him dad, never hear his laugh... it's impossible to accept it, therefore, as cruel as it was, they couldn't talk about him. Nor think about him.

"I'm hungry. And thirsty," Dora said again.  
Remus nodded with a bitter grimace. He was too. But that wouldn't bother them for too long now.  
She clung to him firmer. They both were weakened by the lack of food, tension and constant stress.  
Remus hugged her.  
"What is... Remus?" she noticed the object in his other hand.  
"Oh, nothing... I just in the case..." he tried to wriggle out and hid the dagger. But it's silver blade brightly shimmered.  
Once had Dora fallen asleep, he took it and was determined to use it as soon as he'd feel the first sign of the transformation. Just so the second one couldn't hurt her. The one whom he was becoming every full moon.

"Did you want to kill yourself?! You promised you'll try to overcome it!"  
"But I have no doubt it will be over tonight. And I don't want to hurt you, deal with it!"  
"No! I don't allow you to hurt yourself, as long as I'm alive, you deal with that!"  
"Don't be mulish! At least now, stop being so stubborn! Some... self-sacrificing gestures are useless!"  
"Don't yell at me, Remus! I thought you understand what I feel and what I am able to do. And what I'm not!" their fight started to intensify.  
"Of course I understand! But tonight is the full moon! I feel it! And I dread it! I can help myself this way! To both of us!"  
"That is no help, only suicide! Only selfishness!"  
"Make it a murder then! It happens anyway if you won't let me! Cold-blooded, beastly murder! There'll be blood flowing down the walls! Your blood! I'll tear your body apart! Just because of your fear of noble guilty feeling you'll have if you stop it!" he finally spoke aloud, too loudly, what burdened him the most.  
"We are not to be blamed for this, none of us. So stop to yell at me at least!" she snapped equally aloud.  
"You say you feel the full moon. Today is our last day! I am terrified! Who wouldn't be! But I don't want to spend the time arguing! We are here, it's enough! In this horrible hole! Shall I hate you for the last hours?!"  
Maybe she refused to realize the full range of situation. Mabye her head refused to take any more horrors. Or maybe she finally realized there's nothing to do and nothing to avoid their fate.  
"Maybe you would finally kill me then!"  
But he immediately realized he overshot.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't say that. Of course, I don't want to argue..."  
"Such are the hours before the execution..." Dora couldn't stop herself. How must Hermione Granger and Ron have felt? They at least knew it wouldn't be anything worse than killing curse. But for them? A sharp blade or ferocious fangs and claws.  
"Don't talk about it. If we are to remain sane."  
But he noticed she probably didn't hear him. She cried again. He knew she's very strong, just the fact she cried and didn't freak out was the proof, but he didn't know what was happening inside her. He wanted to comfort her.  
"Don't cry now... I won't say anything hurtful anymore," he tried his best soothing tone of voice.  
Yet, she couldn't stop. So much effort, so much fight, so many sacrifices and lives burning out, and everything to nought. They could give up from the beginning because they failed. They didn't manage to defeat Voldemort and his rise to power and now they'd be just another victims in a long row.

"Remus I don't want to think about where are we and what's about to happen. Otherwise, I'll go crazy."  
She sounded tired. Very tired.  
"I'd like to forget too."  
But he didn't know how.


	6. Chapter 6

**The last chapter, finally. The translation took more time than expected, but I had a very wild month. I tried to find my own apartment because I'm seriously sick of roommates not moving a finger and me cleaning and buying everything. And I was lucky. But that also meant a lot of errands and, of course, the moving itself. My legs hurt for a week, moreover, my father-furniture mover was free only for one day – and just that day there was half-marathon in this city, so the part of the city where I lived closed (plus hot weather like in hell, after that violent storms and heavy rain causing local flood happened that day, yeah…) and try and buy furniture and move lots and lots of your things in this situation. Into the third floor. Without the lift. It was seriously half-sitcom half-depressing movie material. And I don't even count I didn't have a refrigerator and internet connection for next two weeks, which is another funny-insane story, perhaps like so much court proceedings of our clients now because everyone wants to plead in summer apparently, one of which led to the "show" with naked man in front of the criminal department for example (not our client, luckily), but whatever. Now I'm on the vacation and the final chapter is here!**

* * *

They had no idea how quickly would the evening come this day. They could only guess according to the waning light and the dusk behind their cold bars because today was exceptionally clear sky out there, but even so, it seemed the time had slowed down.  
Tension and fear dominated them.  
While they promised not to talk about that, they constantly thought about the night. What would they do, how would it all end? And especially, who of them, if any, would stay alive.  
Remus slowly started to agree with Death Eaters in his mind. He's just an animal that shouldn't be allowed to live freely among other people. He's inferior and dangerous. A wild monster.

How much easier life did others have. Anyone else would just sit here and wait for the day of judgement that ought to come sooner or later. But he would have to submit to his own wolf part that he couldn't control no matter what. He would have to let it win over everything human in him. He would have to let it crave for blood and meat and kill. He wouldn't be able to stop it and he wouldn't have a choice. He'd never had a choice. He'd been violently predestined to monthly suffering as a little child and there's not and had never been any way back.  
He didn't know how human flesh tasted. The only thing he'd kept winning over. He'd never let the wolf slaughter a human.  
But now he didn't have a choice either.  
He'd do it.  
He'd never considered himself evil, but now, in a situation without a solution, he saw he'd been evil. Worse than them. And there's no way to change it. Werewolves had simply always been dark creatures and he's one of them.  
If he said it aloud, she wouldn't agree. He knew. She'd always been telling him, that if a person could recognize evil and mark it as evil, even though he served it or was in its captivity, he couldn't be evil himself. But how far did his human part reach, how far was he a person? And how long would he be able to play one? After all, if you were werewolf, you… just… were… wolf.

"How are you?" she leaned on his shoulder firmly robed into his tattered coat. This evening was very chilly. The stone walls of their prison had never been warm, but today the cold was especially sensible. Perhaps it was another sign of the coming full moon. For sure.  
"Quite good... good," he lied with the faintest smile. "I feel quite fine."  
"That's good..."  
"And what about you?" he caressed her.  
"Not bad," she overly tried to sound cheerful.  
"Do you think the evening is coming?" he asked seemingly at ease.  
"No, certainly not yet," her answer sounded falsely convinced.

Neither of them could explain why were they lying while both knew true answers. They knew they felt bad, that the night was coming and this reassuring about lies made no sense and wouldn't help him a bit.  
Perhaps it was just easier than to say the truth. A lie was always easier because the truth hurt straight away.

"Have I been truly so naive, when I thought we can defeat Voldemort?" she belonged to those who never feared to speak his name. She'd been too little the first time he raised. And the second time, she was a strong auror. She learned from Dumbledore.  
Remus didn't answer.  
"Have I been so naive, when I thought Harry would live and kill him? That three teenagers would get him, and we live happily ever after?"  
"No. Everyone believed it. There was nothing else if we didn't want to accept him," he tried to convince her, that she's not naive nor stupid.  
"There still can be hope, right?"  
"Of course. There is still hope that Teddy will live in a free world."  
She smiled at the mention of their son. The persistent tension and waiting slowly dulled her mind. She surrendered quickly.  
"We are gonna make it," this wasn't a question.  
"Yeah," she nodded without thinking.  
Lie, lie and lie. Every word a lie, but he didn't want to say otherwise. They knew what would come and there was no need to point to it.  
"We definitely are."

He started to feel the same symptoms of submission to the fate and dullness as Dora did. He smiled as if the false assurance lulled him into the total peace and serenity. He didn't think anymore. His brain didn't want to apprehend the reality anymore and the closer they were to the fateful night, the less he admitted it.

Dora's eyes were closed again. She was truly tired as the prison dulled her mind along all the energy in her. He couldn't sleep or even only not to see even though he wished. He would love to have the power to take her and bring her back home. Lay her into a soft bed, take a look on little Teddy how he's sleeping happily and realize he can't be more fortunate.  
Only these times were gone forever, never to return. Last hours were before him. Maybe not even that. And everything would be destroyed. The final end of all his dreams and wishes. The final end of his family. The final end of Dora.

He slowly got up and stood under the barred window again. This night was bright. He could clearly see a lot of stars spreading out above. Only the moon wasn't visible. But he didn't need to see it. He felt the changes. He felt the full moon and the power of his curse.  
It'd be tonight. It'd happen.

He squeezed himself into the corner between cold stones. He wished to squeeze himself into the wall and simply disappear. Disappear from Dora and protect her from everything evil he was about to do. But only a few wizards could perform magic without their wands, and even fewer could manage such complex spell at such heavily guarded place.

He clenched his fists and dug his nails into his palms. The time had come.  
He breathed sharply but didn't talk. He didn't want to frighten her. His whole body started to ache. His skin burned and he longed to tear it off. But it would be only a while until it turns to hair and he becomes an animal.  
Something inside him was waking up.

He felt the desire to roar. To run out, quaff the fresh night air, he wanted to run in full force and hunt.  
In the end, he didn't stop a quiet sound coming from his throat. It went through the whole cell and like a knife into the Dora. She sat up abruptly and opened her eyes wide.

"Remus..." she breathed out.  
But she didn't get any answer.  
Remus sat curled up on the ground and pressed his face to the cold stone. He felt sick. But he knew it'd be better in a moment. He couldn't resist anymore. The last drops of human sense had left him.

"Remus you..." she knew what's happening. And also what it meant.  
A short growl.  
He glared at her with eyes full of wild, red flames.  
Dora rose to her feet like in a dream and tightly gripped the silver dagger.  
It's over.


End file.
